Madison Keys shares her thoughts on whether casual tennis fans are bad for the sport

Madison Keys has witnessed quite a few changes in tennis since her early days on the WTA Tour.

Keys picked up her first WTA victory at just 14 back in 2009, and she’s remained a fixture near the top of the game ever since.

The American is best known for her Grand Slam achievements, having claimed the Australian Open title last year.

After defeating Donna Vekic in Charleston, Keys spoke about whether she feels casual fans are hurting tennis and shared her ideas on how to bring more attention to the sport.

Madison Keys shares thoughts on how tennis can appeal to more casual fans

Keys opened her Charleston campaign with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Vekic and spoke in her post-match press conference about what the sport can do to attract a wider audience.

While she admitted it’s a tough challenge, Keys was quick to point out that casual fans aren’t necessarily a problem for the sport. In fact, she sees them as part of the broader landscape.

According to Keys, putting more focus on player personalities could be key. She believes there’s already been progress in this area and feels it’s something worth building on.

“I think it would actually be really hard to get the kind of casual fan to tune in more,” said Keys.

“There’s so much tennis and it’s all of the time, so I think to ask people to be in it all the time I don’t think is realistic, in the same way, I don’t watch a lot of other sports in general, but in the same way that everyone tunes in for the NBA Finals. You might not have watched the whole season, but you have way more eyes on the NBA Finals.

“So I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. I think you have the opportunity to get a few of those who are sitting on the fence of being a casual, and how do you persuade a few more of them to get more into it? I think a lot of that comes through storytelling and showing more of the personalities of the players.

“I’ve found that tennis fans will religiously follow you and wake up and watch all of your matches when they get to know you, because they have a connection, and I think that’s a really good thing that the tour is starting to do a really good job of and showcasing more than just the names you are going to see all the time.

“You want to showcase players winning the 250’s and winning the 500’s, and having the run of their lives somewhere, and then capturing all of those people who fall in love with those runs to then get them to pay attention to all of the other weeks.”

Madison Keys outlines her hopes for the next WTA Finals host city after move from Saudi Arabia

Discussion around casual tennis fans followed questions about the WTA Finals, which are moving away from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after this year’s event.

Keys has appeared in the season-ending tournament twice, most recently last year, and hopes it lands in a location where tennis is deeply appreciated.

“I always go back and forth on if I feel like it should be in one place and, given the opportunity, to really grow or if I really like the fact that it gets to move around and tennis fans from all over get to experience it,” said Keys.

“I really don’t know where I land on if I want one thing or the other, but I just really want it to go to a place where people love tennis and they’ll come out and they’ll support. I mean it’s the thing we all dream of playing, it’s the event of the entire year that everyone is talking about. I just hope it’s in a place that tennis fans get to see it and appreciate it and it gets to be the event that it deserves to be.”

The American was then asked whether fans truly understand how significant qualifying for the WTA Finals is for players.

“I think if you are a hardcore tennis fan you appreciate it,” Keys responded. “I think more of the kind of surface level tennis fans, we kind of all know that they just check in and check out around the Slams and stuff.

“But I mean it is literally the race to the Finals, it’s the only thing we talk about, so I would hope the true fans appreciate what we are racing to (laughs).”

Potential new hosts for future editions include Charlotte (USA) or Gdansk (Poland).

The Charleston Open is unlikely to help much either, as she exited early following a 6-3, 6-1 defeat at the hands of Sloane Stephens.

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